The Dark Tower producers now eyeing this Oscar winner for key role

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The team behind the long-awaited adaptation of The Dark Tower have an actor in mind for the evil Man in Black.

According to The Wrap, producers Ron Howard and Brian Grazer have approached Matthew McConaughey about playing the villainous, shape-shifting enemy who Roland Deschain, the last gunslinger, pursues across a devastated alternate version of our world in Stephen King's eight-book saga. McConaughey was apparently offered both the part of Roland and the Man in Black, but is said to be leaning toward the latter.

Interestingly, McConaughey was also recently the subject of speculation regarding the film version of another Stephen King epic, The Stand, with the star allegedly pursued to play the demonic Randall Flagg -- who, in the King universe, is actually another identity of The Dark Tower's Man in Black.

McConaughey (who won the Oscar for Best Actor a couple of years ago for Dallas Buyers Club) also turned down a role in Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 not long ago, so The Dark Tower would mark his first entry into the realm of franchises. That's exactly what Howard and Grazer intend The Dark Tower to be, with the project envisioned as a series of movies linked by seasons of a TV series.

Director Nikolaj Arcel was recently brought on board to direct, and although both Javier Bardem and Russell Crowe have been candidates to play Roland, it's not clear whether either of them is in the mix at the moment. The first Dark Tower film is scheduled to hit theaters in 2017.

Can you see Matthew McConaughey as the Man in Black? Or do you think he might even make a good Roland?